News Roundup August/September 2026

The German press agency, dpa, reports the Federal Ministry of Transport is to impose penalties of €1,332 ($1,500) per tonne of SAF that airlines fail to use as required by the EU’s ReFuelEU SAF mandate. Applicable from the start of 2025, the mandate requires a 2% minimum blend of SAF be available at EU airports, then rising to 6%, with a separate 1.2% eSAF requirement, in 2030.

Synhelion has been selected for funding under the Produktives.NRW programme of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which will support the construction of a commercial demonstration plant for renewable synthetic fuels, including eSAF, in Jülich, Germany. Having established its first plant, DAWN, to validate the technology at industrial scale, the next plant will establish commercial operability and “make the technology bankable,” says the company.

Lufthansa Technik (LHT) and partner Surventis are testing a new generation of material attached to wings and tail surfaces that aims to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by around 1%. A total of 22 long-haul aircraft from four Lufthansa Group airlines are already equipped with the AeroSHARK surface technology, saving 19 tonnes of fuel and 60 tonnes of CO2 daily. LHT will be testing 70 film patches, each measuring 20 x 20 cms, of the next-gen riblet technology on a Lufthansa City Airlines Airbus A319 operating between Munich and Hamburg through until February 2027.

Alfa Laval has been chosen by Acelen Renewables to supply pre-treatment technology to a proposed SAF production facility in the Brazilian state of Bahia. SAF will be produced from both traditional feedstocks such as soybean oil, tallow and used cooking oil, as well as macaúba, a native Brazilian crop. Alfa Laval will be supplying its heat exchangers and separators, and engineered components, and the technology for processing macaúba oil has been tested in the company’s laboratories in Denmark. The biorefinery is expected to begin operations in 2029, with a capacity to produce 1 billion litres of SAF as the main HVO product.

Electric aviation developer LYTE Aviation and aviation technical management services company AMROS have unveiled the PowerBridge HyVolt, a hybrid-electric propulsion system, as it advances towards plans for a 40-seat hybrid-hydrogen electric VTOL, called SkyBus, with a 1,000km range. LYTE is also developing a 4.5-tonne variant, the SkyTruck, and a flying hospital called SkyClinic. LYTE is aiming to get the eVTOL into operation “within the next few years”, with an eventual goal of going from hybrid-electric to fully electric.

Environmental commodities brokerage Emstream reports it has completed its second CORSIA carbon credit auction on behalf of European energy company SEFE, with a volume-weighted average price above $12.60/tCO2e and a highest price of $12.75. The Cambodia Improved Cookstove project carries an Article 6 label, CORSIA Phase 1 label, Letter of Authorisation, insurance and certified SDG co-benefits. “It is encouraging to see genuine demand returning to the market, with airlines looking to purchase credits, coupled with the additional clarity and support for CORSIA provided by the recent EU ETS announcement,” commented Nathan Dixon, VP Environmental Products, SEFE.

IATA’s Board of Directors has appointed Saadia Zahidi as its ninth Director General. She joins the global airline association from the World Economic Forum where she is a Managing Director and Member of the Managing Board. Zahidi will start in November, replacing Willie Walsh, whose term ends at the end of July. Sandrine Le Borgne, IATA’s CFO and SVP Corporate Services, will serve as Interim Director General for the intervening period.

The UK government’s export credit agency, UK Export Finance (UKEF), which supports businesses accessing finance, announced during the Farnborough Airshow measures to drive growth and decarbonisation across the aerospace sector. It includes broadening its eligibility criteria so that it can consider a wider range of financing options for UK-based SAF projects. UKEF said this would open the door to greater investment in the sector. “This welcome new measure is key to developing new onshore capabilities that will form the backbone of a more resilient, energy secure future for the country,” said James Hygate, CEO of Firefly, which is building a sewage-to-SAF facility in the UK.

H4 Marseille Fos, an eSAF project co-developed by Hy2gen France and French developer H2V, and the Rhône Décarbonation project have signed a strategic partnership agreement that secures 50% of the biogenic CO2 requirements of the eSAF project over the long term. The agreement marks the emergence of the first structured CCU value chain in France, say the partners. Final investment decision is targeted for 2028 and from 2032, the plant will produce 75,000 tonnes of eSAF per year using methanol-to-jet technology and is expected to make a substantial contribution to the EU’s mandated 10% eSAF share in aviation fuels by 2040. The joint venture has also signed a 10-year nuclear power supply agreement with EDF.

Malaysian SAF developer FatHopes Energy has entered into a strategic partnership with Spain-based renewable feedstock specialist UCO Trading, which will supply more than 200,000 tonnes per year of waste-based feedstocks through its global sourcing network, subject to definitive agreements and project milestones. The collaboration will leverage diversified supply channels across the Americas, Europe and predominantly Asia. UCO Trading’s compliance-led operating model is built around ISCC-certified chain-of-custody, rigorous supplier due diligence and comprehensive traceability systems.

The Green Cabin Alliance has opened membership for Airline Allies, a new collaborative initiative designed to help airlines accelerate the transition towards more sustainable and circular aircraft cabins. It will bring airlines alongside the GCA’s existing membership base of manufacturers, suppliers, designers, material innovators and other industry stakeholders to tackle shared sustainability challenges to help, says GCA, transform the aircraft cabin from a traditionally linear model into a more circular and environmentally responsible part of aviation. Cabin sustainability remains a largely untapped opportunity, it says, and the initiative aims to address the challenge by giving airlines a central role in shaping practical solutions and encouraging greater collaboration across the aviation ecosystem.

Air Canada and Airbus have launched an initiative to establish a jointly funded Sustainability Co-Investment Platform. They will invest up to CAD 13.7 million ($10 million) through the platform to support a commercial-scale SAF industry in Canada. A key focus area includes accelerating a jointly agreed Canadian SAF project towards a final investment decision. Additionally, the initiative includes a vehicle for corporate partners to stimulate domestic SAF demand through Air Canada’s Leave Less Travel Program, in which Airbus has signed a five-year agreement. Airbus will purchase SAF environmental attributes associated with over 60,000 litres of SAF for its first allocation.

ETFuels has selected the Port of Immingham in northeast England as the location for its Project Kings Road Humber (formerly called Project SkyFuel), a methanol-to-jet refinery converting e-methanol into SAF for UK supply and export. The facility will have direct access to the Humber’s extensive fuel storage, pipeline and distribution infrastructure to provide connections into the UK’s aviation fuel supply network, as well as Immingham’s deep-water port facilities. The project will have access to ETFuels’ Texas production platform of low-cost e-methanol and create up to 1,000 construction jobs and 400 permanent skilled engineering, operations and manufacturing roles.

Rolls-Royce, Boeing and Lufthansa are partnering to test technologies to improve fuel efficiency and reduce noise. The research is focusing on a novel engine inlet with advanced acoustic treatments. The inlet enables the integration of more fuel-efficient engines onto future platforms and reduces weight as well as drag while maintaining the acoustic performance. The other testing involves modified departure and arrival procedures that aim to reduce community noise around airports. The tests in Glasgow, Montana, are taking place on the newest Boeing ecoDemonstrator flying test bed, a Rolls-Royce Trent 1000-powered Boeing 787-9 scheduled to be delivered to Lufthansa at a later date.